Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 01

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 186

148
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Jijñāsā
There can not be a society without a sense of a society. It is this consciousness, which may be called 'social consciousness' (Sāmājik Bodh) that brings a society into being. The social consciousness crystallizes around a philosophy of life that is wider than the mere struggle of existence at the physical and material level for livelihood and gratification of senses (Artha and Kāma). Thus it is not the convergence of material interests that constitutes the kernel of a society but a philosophy about the meaning of life. The social consciousness, thus, is an embodiment of the traditions of value that a society builds and inherits. It is the inherited traditions that demarcate one society from another.
The beginning of the tradition does not take place as a system; its earliest expression takes place in poetic or mythological utterances. And since the utterances of the seers and prophets are symbolic expressions of supra-sensual truths, they do not remain untouched by interpretative endeavors. These utterances should not be confused with full-scale or systematic expositions- they are utterances quivering with suggestive symbols. They thus remain objects of contemplation and interpretation. This process of interpretation gives rise to a body of statements and assertions that grow into a tradition. Culture is but another name of this tradition and society is the physical frame of culture. A society gets its individuality from the culture it carries. Its social countenance takes the form of a set of regualations (Achāra, Vyavahāra) enshrining a set of values that a society generates from its Āgama. A society thus also is a configuration of values.
Although the original source of a truly fundamental philosophy of life lies in the sphere of vision and has something of an ethereal quality about it in the beginning, it starts acquiring a body first in symbolical forms in the domains of feeling and aesthetics and then it works its way into more tangible areas of thought and philosophy and finally into the social and political norms and practices and organizations. Thus culture in Prof. Pande's formulation holds within its fold a subset which is also sometimes called civilization. Civilization is the formal and organized social expression of culture. It is the unity of goal, the goal being the foundational value sought after that binds the symbolical and the formal aspect's of society. These formal aspects that constitute the civilization, in fact, represent institutionalized values. One of the implications of Prof. Pande's formulation is; society or social organization can not be analyzed fully and properly in functional, behavioral, mechanistic and systemic terms. Social organization, which is a part of civilization, can be better understood as embodying values a society strives to achieve. And from this point of view, civilization and its component, the social organization is among the most important fields of study for the historian. Like Hobsbaum, history of society is a central concern of Prof. Pande. Only he does not agree that society should be viewed merely as an instrument for the satisfaction of man's material needs. It would also be wrong to construe that Prof. Pande discounts the importance of economic and material pursuits. He is only unwilling to concede these pursuits, and the .ensions and conflicts arising from these pursuits, and the
ality of these tensions and pursuits, the centrality that Hobsbaum gives. Prof. Pande would rat i v reach out to the vision of the ideal good' around which the structure of society and civilization develops According to him three elements are woven in a seamless texture: (i) institutional Structure
or civilization, (ii) system of values as basis of civilization and (iii) values as prentic i ans resting on faith and knowledge. Although conceptually these three can be distinguish and separate in their actual existence they are bound together as in a compound.
Culture, civilization and state are distinct entities embodying successively narrower concepts. All cultures reflect, or endeavour to reflect, essentially the same vision, the vision of an ideal life. All